In the residue of the meeting, I want
to deal with a lesson for us as
praying people we learn from these great revivals.
I spoke on Sunday night on the person
of the Holy Spirit, who is the key
to revival.
Last night I spoke on the indwelling and
filling of the Holy Spirit.
Tonight I want to talk about total commitment,
because that's what this outpouring of the Holy
Spirit brings through prayer.
To me, the second most important verse in
the Bible is Romans 12 and 1.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies
of God, to make a decisive dedication of
your whole personality to God, which is your
reasonable service.
So I want to deal very briefly with
that message from the epistle to the Romans.
Could anyone tell me, what does it mean
to be justified?
You have heard the word, I'm sure.
Yes?
That's right, that's as good as any, to
be made right before God.
I'm surprised you didn't say what most people
say.
Justified means justified, never sinned.
That's a pun, but I don't mind an
occasional pun.
I remember asking my Sunday school teacher in
Ireland, who were the Sadducees?
He said that the Sadducees were a Jewish
sect who didn't believe in the resurrection of
the body or the coming of the Lord,
and that is why they were sad, you
see.
I've never forgotten that.
So if you like to remember, justified means
when God looks at me, he sees me
justified, never sinned.
That will fascinate your mind.
It's more than forgiveness, of course.
Twenty-five years ago I was driving along
California Boulevard in Pasadena.
I came to a stop sign at the
corner of Allen Street.
Now there's a traffic light.
I stopped, then I turned left to go
north.
There used to be a motorcycle policeman hiding
under the pepper trees there, and as I
drove north I noticed in the reflection of
my mirror this motorcycle policeman coming rapidly in
my direction.
I said to the Reverend Armand Guestwine, who
was with me, who's he chasing?
He looked back and he said, you're the
only one on the street.
The policeman pulled alongside and he said, pull
over there.
But I pulled over, he parked his cycle,
then he walked back, laid his elbow on
my window frame nonchalantly.
You will agree, traffic cops have poise.
Now my automobile was a Plymouth at that
time and it had an Illinois license plate
on it.
Mister, he said, do you have stop signs
back in Illinois?
I thought, what a dumb question.
Yes.
Mister, he said, when you see a stop
sign back in Illinois, do you stop?
I said, yes.
Then he said, why didn't you stop back
there?
I said, I did.
I mean, I think I did.
I mean, I hope I did.
I mean, did I?
He said, you put your foot in the
brake but you didn't stop rolling.
Show me your driver's license.
Mercifully, it was issued in Chicago.
He looked at it, handed it back.
Well, he said, I see you are a
bona fide visitor to our fair state.
We'll forgive you.
I was forgiven, but I wasn't justified.
Do you know how I know?
He followed me up to see what I'd
do at San Pascual.
I was on probation.
Now, when God forgives us, he does more
than that.
He justifies us.
He treats us as if we'd never sinned
in the first place.
That's justification.
What does it do for us?
Delivers us from the guilt of sin.
It's very important.
In New Guinea, one of my colleagues in
the chaplaincy preached biblical sermons, but he assumed
that every G.I. that came into the
chapel was a Christian man.
So he just preached on the Christian life.
He never told anyone how to become a
Christian.
We've got to preach justification before we can
preach sanctification.
I asked Herbert Richardson, the late pastor of
the Redondo Chapel, if Carroll Chessman, remember his
name, was interested in the Christian life.
He said Carroll Chessman was interested only in
one thing, how to beat the rap.
Yet you couldn't blame him.
I mean, if a man is sentenced to
death, you don't give him a book on
how to be a good citizen.
He's most concerned about his guilt, first of
all.
But Carroll Chessman went the wrong way about
it.
So we must be concerned about the guilt
of sin.
Now I'm going to mention another term, sanctification.
I was preaching in College Avenue Baptist Church,
San Diego.
Many years ago, my wife was in the
meeting.
When I announced I was going to speak
on sanctification, one Baptist lady turned to another
and said, sanctification?
She said, that's a Methodist doctrine.
I said, oh no, that's a New Testament
doctrine.
What does it mean to be sanctified, anyone?
To be set apart, that's right.
Some people say to be made holy, that's
also right, but to be made holy is
exactly saying to be sanctified.
Sanctified is the Latin form, to be made
holy is the Anglo-Saxon form.
But it means to be set apart.
Now some people think it means to be
cleansed.
That's secondary.
The primary meaning is to be set apart.
Things have been sanctified as well as people.
The house of the Lord was sanctified, the
vessels in the house of the Lord were
sanctified.
I remember many years ago, coming home late
one evening, my wife didn't know when to
expect me, so she had gone out shopping.
I was too tired to cook for myself,
too hungry to wait for my wife to
come back.
So I said to my eleven-year-old
daughter, how would you like to make some
supper for your daddy?
She was pleased.
She had just learned to cook in junior
high.
Of course I knew what I would get,
meatballs.
But that seemed attractive enough.
I began to read the newspaper.
My daughter put the pan on the stove,
a knife on the table, a fork on
the table, then she put a plate on
the table.
I said, take that plate away.
She said, what's wrong with that plate, daddy?
I said, that's the cat's plate.
I'm not going to eat off a cat's
plate.
But she said, I washed it.
I said, I don't care if you wash
it a hundred times.
That plate was sanctified onto the cat.
That's the meaning of the word.
And the Bible speaks of it negatively, the
children of Israel sanctified themselves to do evil.
They set themselves out to do evil.
But positively it means to be set apart
for God.
What does sanctification do for us?
It delivers us from the power of sin.
I'm Irish.
What are the Irish noted for?
Two contradictory characteristics, good humor and bad temper.
And I had my share of both.
I had a bad temper.
I remember trying to commit suicide at the
age of 11.
You may say that was very young.
Yes, but mother had thrashed me.
I thought they don't appreciate me around here.
I'll throw myself in the river.
Then they won't treat me like that again.
I could see the headlines in the local
paper, boys body found in river, home difficulties.
I thought they'll be ashamed the way they've
treated me.
It's all over some trivial affair.
Mother thrashed me for taking two pennies out
of her purse and buying a box of
matches and trying to set fire to two
other boys.
I went down to the river to commit
suicide, but the water was too cold.
When I'm in the middle West, I tell
them people jump off the Golden Gate Bridge
to end it all.
Nobody, but nobody ever commits suicide in Duluth,
Minnesota.
In July, the water there is 34 degrees.
It discourages suicide.
So the water was too cold and I
didn't commit suicide, but I had a bad
temper.
But I thought I was a Christian with
a bad temper, just the way some Christians
have arthritis.
I didn't realize that God could deliver me
of this.
And that's what sanctification is all about.
Be of sin the double cure, cleanse me
from its guilt and power.
Now, how do we apply this?
If you have your New Testament you want
to follow, just turn briefly to the Epistle
to the Romans.
What's the subject of the first three chapters
of the Epistle to the Romans?
The first chapter tells us how terrible sin
is in the sight of God.
Then the Apostle says all Gentiles are sinners.
Then he says the Jews are sinners too,
although they have the word of God.
He sums it up in Romans 3.23.
All have sinned and come short of the
glory of God.
So now there you have the guilt of
sin.
Every last man born into this world faces
the problem of the guilt of sin.
What's the answer?
Romans 4 and 5 deal with justification.
Romans 5 and 1, therefore being justified by
faith we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice, by faith.
I was preaching in Santa Clara for the
Reverend Kenneth Longmore.
I wrote to him and I said if
there are any schools or colleges around, arrange
some meetings for students.
When I got there he said you're speaking
in a series at Santa Clara University.
Santa Clara?
I knew it wasn't a college of the
University of California.
I said that's a Roman Catholic university.
He said yes, Jesuit.
They want me to speak?
He said yes.
I said to the priest in charge, Father
Sweeters I think was his name, do you
want me to speak on our common heritage?
Yes if you wish, he said, but we'd
much rather you speak on faith and works,
scripture and tradition.
So I spoke on faith and works.
I was asked from the floor, do you
believe that faith without works is dead?
I said yes, scripture says so, every version.
Then aren't we saved by two things, by
faith and by works?
I said not two things, just one thing.
It says two things, by faith and by
works.
I said not by faith and by works.
It says faith without works is dead.
It means the kind of faith that doesn't
have works is no use.
The Apostle James says can that kind of
faith save you?
They still didn't comprehend.
I said it means really we're saved by
the faith that works.
I said look my next door neighbor is
a devout Irish Roman Catholic.
My wife and I discovered they wanted to
go to Mexico to a wedding, but they
couldn't go because they had a very small
baby.
So my wife said leave the baby with
us, take the other children and go and
enjoy yourselves.
Oh no Mrs. Orr.
My wife said but you think I couldn't
take care of your child?
Oh no it's not that, we wouldn't impose
on you.
She said it's no imposition, leave the formula
and leave the diapers and I'll take care
of your baby.
So we had a little squalling infant for
a week.
Now I said to my Roman friends you'd
agree that was good works?
Yes.
Well Mrs. Orr didn't do that because she
thought what Christ had done on the cross
was only 92 and a half percent effective
and she had to make up with seven
and a half percent good works of her
own to get by.
No no she believed what Christ did on
the cross was a hundred percent effective.
She just planned to do the good works
to please the Lord.
So we are saved, we are justified by
faith.
What about works?
Works follow faith.
But now we come to another problem.
Romans six and one says what shall we
say then shall we continue in sin that
grace may abound?
God forbid.
That's the King James Version.
The Revised Standard Version, shall we continue in
sin that grace may be greater?
By no means.
In Philip's translation, shall we sin to our
hearts content and so exploit the grace of
God?
What a ghostly thought.
That's an Englishman's expression.
I wondered what word could be translated God
forbid by no means and what a ghostly
thought.
I made a discovery.
In the Aramaic, you know the word amen
is not Greek, it's Aramaic.
It means so let it be.
But it has a direct opposite chalila which
means may it never be so.
When Peter said to the Lord far be
it from thee Lord he said chalila may
it never be so.
That's the word here.
Shall we keep on sinning that God may
forgive us some more?
Chalila.
May it never be so.
Yet we do that.
If I could illustrate, supposing Sears Roebuck put
an announcement in the paper that on the
first of September 1976 to commemorate the bicentennial
celebrations, Sears Roebuck and company are prepared to
forgive every outstanding debt against the firm.
That would be very good news to some
little widow whose husband had died and left
her no money to pay the bills.
But what do you think would happen between
now and the first of September?
Everyone and his brother Tom, Dick and Harry
would go to Sam.
I mean Sam's U-Drive.
He'd get a truck and he'd go to
Sears Roebuck and order everything he could get.
And he'd say charge it.
Why?
Well if you're going to be forgiven you
might as well run up an account.
And that's what the apostle's saying.
God's been so decent with us to forgive
us freely, to justify us by faith.
What shall we say then?
Shall we just keep on sinning that God
can forgive us some more?
By no means.
Well what can we do about this?
Romans 6 and 7 deal with the problem
of the power of sin in the life
of the believer.
The continuing bad habits and attitudes.
Now I know some will disagree with me.
I heard a minister in Melbourne in Australia
preach an evangelistic address on Romans chapter 7.
But I think you can see for yourself
that Romans 7 applies to the believer.
Take four selected verses.
Romans 7, 15.
For that which I do I allow not.
What does that mean?
That's old-fashioned English.
How could you not allow what you do?
Well actually the modern translation is better.
I do not understand my own actions.
I do not do what I want, but
I do the very thing I hate.
Point number one.
Point number two.
I do not do the good I want,
but the evil I don't want is what
I end up doing.
Point number three.
Yet in my heart of hearts, this is
7.19, I delight to do God's will.
I'm anxious to please him.
Point number four.
Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me?
Four points.
Here's a person who knows what's right but
doesn't always do it.
He knows what's wrong but sometimes does it.
Yet in his heart of hearts he wants
to please God.
And the struggle gets him down.
Is that a believer or an unbeliever?
Well let's see.
He knows what's right but he doesn't always
do it.
That could be either.
He knows what's wrong but sometimes does it.
That could be either.
But in his heart of hearts he's anxious
to please God.
That's not the unbeliever.
And the struggle doesn't get him down.
The unbeliever takes his sin in the stride.
He takes the hangovers with the pleasures.
Whereas the believer is miserable in sin.
I'm going to ask another question.
Do you know anyone in Pasadena that these
points describe?
A person who knows what's right but doesn't
always do it.
Knows what's wrong but sometimes does it.
Yet in his heart of hearts he wants
to do God's will.
And the struggle gets him down.
Do you know anyone like that?
If so, would you raise your hands?
Anyone?
Who?
I'm glad you're honest because I asked the
question once in India at Coimbatore and the
little woman jumped up and shouted, My husband!
No, if the cap fits, wear it.
This describes a believer in defeat under the
law in the flesh.
And that's what these two chapters describe.
Now when I say in the flesh, let's
make clear what we mean.
I was asked in an Anglican church in
Sydney, do you mean the actual flesh?
Well, I said, not the meat on our
bones.
He persisted.
I said, now the Greek word's the word
sarx, but it means the carnal nature.
But when he still said, but doesn't the
Bible speak of sinful flesh?
I said, look, if what you're saying is
right, then a big fat man's a lot
worse sinner than a little thin man.
And holiness is a matter of diet.
Now there is a germ of truth there,
of course, but it doesn't refer to that
flesh.
It refers to the carnal nature, the old
man that we have.
It gives us a clue to the answer.
Romans 6, 14.
Sin shall not have dominion over you.
You're not under the law, you're under grace.
What does that mean?
The Lord Jesus said, whoever commits sin is
a slave of sin.
That's why we talk of a man being
a slave to lust, a slave to drink,
a slave to drugs, a slave to profanity.
But this word says you don't need to
be a slave.
Why?
You're not under law, you're under grace.
What does that mean?
The law doesn't help anyone.
I was preaching for Dr. Ironside in the
Moody Church before 4,000 people, when three
gangsters came in and stole the collection.
Now if they had been apprehended, which they
were not, could you imagine one of those
young men saying, honest judge, I didn't know
it was wrong to rob a church.
Of course they knew the law.
But it doesn't help you.
When it says 25 miles an hour, that's
the law, but you can do faster than
that if you want to.
The law doesn't help you, it warns you.
But you're not under law, you're under grace.
Unmerited favor in Jesus Christ, there's enough there
to help you.
And verse 11 says, reckon yourselves dead to
sin but alive to God.
Next time you're tempted to sin, play possum.
Reckon yourself dead.
Next time you're invited to serve, look lively.
That's the discipline of the Christian life.
You say yes, but I've tried this and
it doesn't work.
I agree with you.
You say then why did you tell us
to try it?
I didn't tell you to try it.
I'm trying to mystify you at this point
because I want you to get the lesson.
It's not only difficult to live the Christian
life, it's impossible.
Now I know there's a book called The
Imitation of Christ by Thomas A Beckett, and
there's another one called In His Steps by
Charles Sheldon, but there isn't anyone here who
can imitate Christ or walk in his steps,
because he was God in human form.
Then why does God expect us to do
it?
Because he has provided the Spirit of Christ,
the Holy Spirit, to do it in us.
I have seen pilgrims in India lie on
the ground, make a stretch with their fingernails,
stand up, put their toes where their fingers
were, lie down again, make another stretch, up
and down, up and down, up and down,
yard by yard, furlong by furlong, mile by
mile, for a hundred miles, on their way
to a Kumbh Mela.
You say what are you trying to do?
They say I'm trying to save my soul.
It's not only difficult to save your soul,
it's impossible.
Then why does God expect anyone to be
saved?
Because he provided a Savior.
In fact, you will not be saved until
you realize that you cannot save yourself.
If you think you can save yourself, you'll
never be saved.
Now in the same way, it's not only
difficult to live the Christian life, it's impossible.
In fact, you won't live the Christian life
victoriously until you realize you can't do it.
But what's the answer?
The Holy Spirit has been provided to live
that life in you.
So why doesn't he?
Because he will not share you with the
world and the flesh and the devil.
He will make every allowance for your weakness.
He knows you.
But he will not share you with the
enemy.
You've got to be set apart for him,
totally committed, fully surrendered.
Sanctified is a scriptural word and I wish
we could use it more.
Trouble is to some people it's a party
word.
The word sanctified means to be set apart,
to be out and out.
As Corrie Ten Boom used to say when
she was preaching with me, 100%.
She always said 100%.
That's what it means.
It means you say, Lord, you can have
all there is of me.
The answer to the problem of the power
of sin is found in chapters 8 and
12, making allowance for the Hebrew parenthesis.
In Romans 8 verse 11 I think it
is, if the spirit of him who raised
Christ Jesus from the dead really dwells in
you, he who raised Christ from the dead
is able to give vitality to your mortal
bodies also.
Ken Taylor, one of my good friends, has
made the translation of the Living Bible.
I've enjoyed reading it.
My wife and I read it devotionally often.
But I don't like his translation here.
He says if the spirit of him who
raised Christ from the dead really dwells in
you, he who raised Christ from the dead
will raise you up at the last day.
He makes a deal with the resurrection.
It doesn't refer to the resurrection.
The context doesn't refer to the resurrection.
Phillips translates it to the word vitality.
If the Holy Spirit who can raise the
dead really dwells in you, he can give
you the life that you need, you say
why doesn't he?
He'll do it if you take Romans 12
and 1 as the proper application.
I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies
of God that you present your body a
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is
your reasonable service.
Now there's a little difficulty here.
Someone might say well isn't that bit by
bit?
No it's not.
Romans 12 and 1 present is in the
aorist infinitive in the Greek.
It's a point of action.
The best translation I know is the C.
B.
Williams translation.
It says make a decisive dedication.
It must be decisive.
You say why couldn't I do it bit
by bit?
It wouldn't be full surrender.
Suppose you had a bad temper, a critical
tongue, a love of money.
You go up to a forest home and
while they're singing I surrender all, you say
Lord I'll surrender all.
This year 76 I'll give up my bad
temper.
It gets me into nothing but trouble.
But I'll keep on criticizing everyone until 77
and I won't start tithing until 78.
Is that full surrender?
Could you imagine God convicting you of two
things wrong in your life that you have
to go and apologize for?
You say Lord I'll put one right but
not the other?
Must be both, must be all.
So in that sense it's entire sanctification.
Or as the scripture says sanctify you wholly.
It says so.
W H O L L Y.
But in case some of you think that
means you've reached a place of sinless perfection,
no no.
The next verse says be not conformed to
this world but rather be transformed.
The verb there is in the continued tense.
Be transformed again and again.
How?
By the renewing of your mind.
And the Greek word there is a cognate
for repentance.
Anytime you fall short you repent and go
back to God again.
I think this is useful to say in
a congregational church as in a Baptist or
Presbyterian church.
Our Methodist and Nazarene friends emphasize the critical
aspect of sanctification.
But I think that there's a danger in
emphasizing shall we say the progressive only?
It must be both.
You can't really grow in grace until you've
made commitment.
So I teach that a man must come
to a place where he says Lord you're
going to have all there is of me.
And after that he grows in grace.
And this is what happens in all the
great times of revival.
It often affects a man's life for 40
years as it did D.
L.
Moody.
So let me ask you, how does a
poor lost sinner rise from the low level
of sin to the high level of justification?
By works or by faith?
By faith.
What about works?
Works follow faith.
How then does a poor defeated Christian rise
from the low level of carnality to the
high level of spirituality?
By works or by faith?
It's by faith.
What about the works?
They follow the faith.
But the trouble with us evangelical Christians in
so many places, we take our justification by
faith and we try to take our sanctification
by works.
Every blessing from God is by faith.
You exercise the same faith.
I never call it a second work of
grace.
I call it a deeper work of grace.
It's all in Calvary, it's all in the
blood of Christ, it's all in the sacrifice.
But we get it all by faith.
Therefore I just want to ask you, why
don't you make a total commitment, say Lord
I won't hold back on anything.
You can have all there is of me.
Good night, God bless you.